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Oil on canvas, 71cm x 91.5cm
The brig 'Elinor Chapman' is shown in two positions in the Mersey with other shipping off the Liverpool waterfront. In the main view she is depicted centrally in starboard profile with her guns prominently shown. The crew are reducing sail. To the right she is shown in port quarter view, having tacked and taken in further sail. Her port anchor has been released ready for use. The vessel's identity can be confirmed from her Marryat flag hoist in both views (2 d p 4,3,1,6). The pennant at the foremast, a white ball on green ground, is almost certainly a house flag and the red ensign flies at the peak.
'Elinor Chapman' was built in Chepstow by Oliver Chapman in 1843. The vessel was operated by Thomas Chapman. In October 1860 Chapman sold the vessel to James Wood, a merchant of Liverpool. She was stranded at St Martin's, New Brunswick in January 1874 and condemned and sold.
After Samuel Walters, Heard is the best known and most prolific of Liverpool ship portraitists. He was born and brought up in Whitehaven and moved to Liverpool in 1833/34. Although producing many standard portraits, he also liked to depict a vessel during a particular incident, usually in a storm or being dismasted.
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